Elijah pratt



E PRATT. ARTIFICIAL NIPPLE. No 4,131. Patented Aug. 4,1845.

Inventor STA 'r union.

ELIJAH PRATT, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ARTIFICIAL NIPPLE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 4,131, dated August 4, 1845; Antedated. July 4., 1845; Reissued July 24, 1847, No. 98.

To all whom. it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELIJAH PRATT, of the city and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Instrument for Protecting Sore Nipples, by which an infant can draw the breast without paining its mother; and I hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification.

Figure l, is. a section of the improved artificial nipple. It is made of wood, tin, glass, silver or other suitable material. In figure and dimensions it resembles other devices of the kind, being made conical with the wide end open the edge being shaped as to press upon without injuring the breast. The small end is closed with the exception of a minute perforation in the center shown at A Fig. 1. The material around the perforation projects as shown at b, b, Fig. 1, so as to form a tube of about %th of an inch in length over which is attached by ligatures or silver wire, a tube of india rubber (see B, Fig. l and Fig. 2) about half an inch in length. This last tube is constructed of a fiat piece of india rubber cut square at one end and conical at the other. It is then perforated through its thickness in the direction of its length so as to leave a slit on its upper end and the lower end having an opening large enough to fit upon the projecting part of the nipple b, b, Fig. 1. It can also be constructed by cutting apiece of india rubber of suitable dimensions through its thickness, lengthwise. The sides are then cemented together and pressed. The form is the same as the last described. The tube is designed to perform the purpose of a valve, by allowing the lips of it to close at the end of every inspiration.

Fig. 2 represents the tube with the lips partly open. Fig. 3, is an india rubber sheath designed to slip over the smaller end of Fig. 1 as represented at Figs. 3 and 4.

The contractile sheet is to be drawn sufficiently over the projecting edge of Fig. 1, as to form an airtight joint without ligatures. The advantage of this nipple is that it remains attached to the breast when the child Witnesses:

EDWD. JONES, MICHAEL ATKINSON.

[Frns'r PRINTED 1913.] 

